The Maimed Hand

Posted on Sun Dec 11th, 2011 @ 4:45am by Commander Patrick Leroy
Edited on on Sun Dec 11th, 2011 @ 5:15am

Mission: Sections of the Delta Quadrant
Location: Somewhere on SB900

Middle broke into the room to find his two comrades: Index and Pinky, already there. Coming to their cove had been all but a quiet walk. Security was everywhere on the base bent on finding the culprits of the sabotage at hangar 51 and of the failed assassination attempt of the Speaker of Divitia.

"'Twas about time." Index grunted addressing him.

"Yeah, I was starting to think you've been caught too." Pinky grinned eyeing his comrade while his hands deftly worked on some kind of mechanism.

"I wasn't out for shopping y'know?" Middle retorted his patience wearing thin "We have hounds everywhere in this darn base sniffing out for us." With a swift gesture he drew near a seat and dropped on it with a huff.

"So... It's not too late. We can still make it, we must have a plan B." Index stated solemnly regarding his two companions.

The other two turned their heads to look at him with mouths agape.

"You're mad." Pinky responded "The ship for our retrieval's almost here. And how, by the way, do you think to get your hands on the Speaker now." Pinky asked derisively. "Count me out of this."

"Maybe we should count you out from everything." Index growled clenching fists as blood pressure started to get to his head.

"He's right." Middle intervened "The mission screwed up in the right moment Ring had second thoughts selling us out. I don't even know why Thumb didn't scrap it all at that time."

"He was obsessed." Pinky murmured almost unheeded.

Index leaned back on his seat breathing heavily before speaking again: "Should I remind you, gentlemen, that we have no future out of here? The Speaker's death was the primary objective upon which our reward was placed. Do you remember that?"

Icy silence followed Index's tirade.

"And, should you have forgotten..." Index reprised "People paying us aren't going to take lightly our failure. As second in command I deem fit...."

"You were second in command until a 'command' existed." Pinky grinned "Thumb's de---*"

Index jumping from the seat had been akin to lightning. Pinky's head banged heavily on the wall as his electronic component clattered to the floor. But that wasn't so much of the problem as almost instantly he started to gasp for missing oxygen.

"Don't...Be.... Stupid..." Pinky struggled to say as Index held him against the wall his hands tightening the grip around his throat.

"Say that again if you dare." Index challenged him.

The smile on Middle's face had quite vanished "Listen Index... Pinky's right. The mission is far too compromised. We get out... Live to fight another day."

For endless instants Middle's words seemed lost on the raging bull Index had become. Then, slowly, he loosened his grip and Pinky's breathed again.

Gasping for air and massaging his throat Pinky picked up his component from the floor. "This one thing" He breathed heavily "Is our leaving ticket. For how I see it: we wait the Rattlesnake, when the ship is in due vicinity we augment the teleport range by using some of the Starbase antennae as emitters, but we'll have a handful of seconds before their Ops catch up that something is wrong. By the time they fully realize it we'll be on board of our vessel and bound to our destination. I don't think I want to undergo scrutiny by our 'paying hand' this time. As soon as we're out of range of this damned base we scatter."

Pinky watched in silence his comrades for an instant before reprising "And I'll be better off if we do not cross our ways again for the rest of my days. Is that a viable option?"

Middle and Index exchanged glances. "Not that we seem to have much choice." Middle agreed "I'm in."

Index felt the his companions' eyes on him while he stood silent. Manifesting his thoughts costed him some this time: "Our 'paying hand' is going to hunt us down." He grumbled scolding them for a reaction.

"If we stay here the darn Security Chief will get her hands on us soon, I've heard she has problems of her own at the moment, with another criminal organisation. I wonder if that wouldn't have been a better thing to get rid of her instead of the Speaker." Pinky paused an instant catching breath "This is the best time for us to leave and, by the way, we have no hope to bring the mission to a successful conclusion." He ended opening the collar of his uniform with the last words, the reddish signs on his throat becoming more evident with passing minutes.

"I agree with him." Middle stated.

"Ok. What we do now?" Index asked checking his mates. No love or sympathy resided in their stares but that was a deeply reciprocated sentiment.

"As I said... With this component..." Pinky said waving the electronical card in his hand "We'll take possession of one of the most powerful transceiver antennae of the base. This will boost teleporting range for the three of us to quadruple normal value. The Rattlesnake will come in this range cloaked as per the plan. Decloaks for a few seconds, right the time to transport us, then cloaks again and flees with us onboard. No fighter, no ship of this base that isn't somewhat alerted in advance will be able to react in time. Then we will think of the rest."

"I'm in." Middle said again.

"Of that I had no doubt." Index responded to him with a hint of disgust "Ok I'm in too. What's the plan now."

Pinky's eyes twinkled as he grinned "Prepare for a long walk. We're not going to leave any trace. We're taking turbolifts until deck 500 or so. Then we crawl our way through Jefferies' tubes and normal stairs to deck 635, where some of the subspace network control is situated."

"You're mad." Middle commented

"I'm not." Pinky replied stiffly. "I'm trying to save our asses indeed."



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The Maimed Hand Of Fate
Assassins Squad trying to rally
from leader's loss and move out